Echo answered, "Who is there?"

Poor Babes in the Wood! They fled in terror, back to the mossy bank
under the fir tree. There they huddled close together.

Presently a little man with a long white beard stood before them. He was
dressed in gray clothes, and he carried a gray sack upon his back.

Hansel and Gretel were not afraid of the little man, for he seemed very
friendly.

The little man sang softly,

"Golden slumbers close your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep, pretty darlings, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
Lullaby, lullaby, the Sandman am I."

Then the Sandman threw into their tired eyes the sand of sleep. Soon the
children had gone safely to Slumberland.

At midnight a little elf, whose home was deep in the heart of an oak
tree, came forth and rang a fairy bell. He sang,

"Twelve small strokes on my tinkling bell--
'Twas made of the white snail's pearly shell;--
Midnight comes, and all is well!
Hither, hither, wing your way,